Consumers have many options for obtaining video programming and other digital content, including video games and music. In addition to cable and satellite television services, the Internet continues to become a viable delivery mechanism as broadband adoption grows and as access networks support more bandwidth. In addition, digital video recording (DVR) devices have become a popular substitute for videocassette recorders, and many satellite and cable video providers are offering DVR features built into their set top boxes to provide time-shifted viewing capabilities. All of these trends expand video offerings for consumers.
With increasing bandwidth and advanced technology, the television user experience is likely to become increasingly interactive. Traditional cable and satellite broadcasters are able to use the 500 MHz to 1 Ghz of spectrum they have available on their networks to deliver hundreds of video channels simultaneously to a set top box in the home. The term “broadcast” in this sense truly implies the consumer is receiving and watching content that perhaps millions of other people are also watching. There is a also a need for “on demand” viewing, borne by the early DVR devices that let customers watch video content when they want, not when it is broadcast. Today, cable operators typically allocate a portion of the 750 MHz to 1 GHz spectrum available on the coax leading into each customer's home to support on-demand video programming. For example, today one (or more with compression) channel(s) are sent within a 6 MHz portion of the spectrum. Supporting a video on demand program requires allocating a portion of the bandwidth within one cable fiber node serving a large number of customers, to serve the on demand program to a single customer. Scaling to support on-demand viewing for a large percentage of the televisions receiving programming on the cable system can be problematic for cable providers since their spectrum is finite.
Current generation Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) services have a similar problem in that they are spectrum limited due to distances from the central office. Standard Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) services operate in 2.2 MHz of spectrum or less. DSL has the benefit of being a star architecture—in essence every subscriber can get the maximum bandwidth achievable within that spectrum regardless of what their neighbors are doing.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved system and method of managing content delivery.